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What’s happening

The PJM Interconnection, which manages the power grid across 13 states including Pennsylvania and for Penelec customers, reported this month that there was an unprecedented increase in wholesale electricity prices. One of their big jobs is to make sure there’s always enough electricity available, especially when everyone’s using a lot of it, like during a heatwave. To do this, they run wholesale auctions where power plants bid to supply electricity. The winning plants get paid to be on standby, ready to deliver power when needed.

During the latest auction, power plants bid at about $269.92 per megawatt-day. Don’t worry too much about what a ‘megawatt day’ means - what matters here is that that price is a staggering nine times higher than last year.

This surge is due to a combination of these primary factors:

• Higher Demand: Data centers, including those for crypto mining and AI, are consuming more power.

• Extreme Weather: Heatwaves and other weather events are pushing energy use higher.

• Less Supply: Older power plants are closing, tightening the electricity supply.

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Why Penelec customers need to know

Power plant companies are benefiting from these higher prices and seeing their stocks climb. But for everyone else - this isn’t great (to say the least). Your Penelec bills will likely take a hit sometime within the next 12-16 months. Some areas and utilities are already warning utilities bills could increase significantly much sooner than that.

The wholesale power market is complex and often seems distant from daily life. However, with the largest price increase on record now in play. It's important to understand how these changes could affect you and your wallet. Electricity price spikes don’t just stay in the wholesale market—they trickle down to your monthly bills as Penelec has to buy the electricity from these power plants. And this is just the beginning - we’ll see more of these price signals over the coming months and Arbor users will always be informed.

What you can do right now

Aside from moving into a forest and going off the grid, one of the best choices every Penelec customer can make right now is to lock-in a low fixed electricity supply rate. The issue with this is shopping for rate plans typically comes with fine print, baity short fixed rates that go variable after a month or two and get surged themselves, and the general hassle of navigating the market. You probably have better things to do.

This is where Arbor comes in. Arbor monitors electric supply rate plans for Penelec customers and on an ongoing basis does all the work to get it on your usual Penelec bill, helping customers save hundreds per year and avoid overpaying.

Here's how it works:

1) Connect your Penelec account or take a picture of your bill so Arbor can analyze your current electric supply rate.

2) When there is a lower fixed rate available than what you are currently paying, Arbor sends you a confirmation for review, and then coordinates with the supplier and Penelec to get it on your usual Penelec bill.

3) On an ongoing basis, Arbor keeps rotating you on lower fixed plans as the term ends each time, so you don't have to remember to do it yourself.

The best part? All of this is no cost to you as every time your supply plan is switched to a lower rate, Arbor receives compensation from the electricity supply generators. You may also cancel a rate at anytime without penalty.

As of writing, there are currently fixed rates lower than Penelec's lowest default rate (which you are probably on) right now. The entire process takes two minutes online to sign up, and Arbor will keep you informed and handle the rest. Avoid overpaying for the price you pay for power today right here.

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